Pensions minister Steve Webb owns up to West Ham shirt gift

A West Bromwich Albion-supporting minister expects to have to declare he received a West Ham United shirt as a gift.

Pensions minister Steve Webb said he was given a Hammers top when he visited the football club's Boleyn Ground, also known as Upton Park, on official business.

The shirt had "3 million" printed on the back to recognise that more than three million people have been auto-enrolled onto a workplace pension since October 2012.

Speaking in the Commons as amendments by peers were considered on the Pensions Bill, Mr Webb said: "I had the pleasure last week of visiting Upton Park to meet someone, who I'm told, was the three-millionth person to be automatically enrolled.

"And I was given – and I have to declare this in some sort of register somewhere – a West Ham shirt."

4 comments

I think we should also add to that collection of shirts one showing 20.7 billion - being the current surplus available in the NI Fund and from which he will not pay the index linked pension to the frozen UK citizens who live abroad but not in the EEA or a select little random group including Macedonia, the Philippines and USA but not, for example, Canada, Australia and the Falkland Islands. Then we could add to his collection with the number 580 million, this beıng the cost of indexing them and what about 75 million which is how much the Australıan taxpayer alone subsidises the UK government by each year? Then, of course, he should also be given the number 20 - the number of the illogical, irrelevant, dscriminatory (Webb's own description of the policy by the way) clause in the Pension Reform Bill - a clause that will affect each and every famıily ın the UK that might be contemplating eventually retiring abroad to be, perhaps wıth chıldren and grandchıldren or just to return to their roots wıth loved ones .
I suggest, however, rather than simply adding to his collectıon of shirts - although a horse hair one might be appropriate - that he should be shown a red card and sent off - after all he refuses to play within the rules, and simply moves the goalposts.

Can someone give Webb another shirt please? This time the figure should be 550,000.....that figure represents the frozen pensioners he has let down since becoming pensions minister. They are the 4% of state pensioners who never get cost of living increases just because of where they live. Blatant discrimination as ALL state pensioners are entitled to be treated the same by virtue of their NI contributions, not to do so is not only discriminatory it is also shameful for a "rich country" (Camerons words) to treat it's own seniors in this disgraceful way.

You can add it to the shirts that you have stolen from the backs of the frozen ex-pat pensioners. But you don't declare those but continue to deny them their rightful indexed pension.Your constituents need to be made aware of this discrimination before the next election especially as he will expect Her Majesty the Queen to give the Royal Assent to it which is asking her to condone discrimination against the Commonwealth Charter that she signed a year ago. Why should the Queen be placed in such an embarrassing position ? This is not the way that we expect our representatives in parliament to act.